ORIGINAL: bassman417
ive heard that rut has to do with photoperiodism sp.? which in case you dont know is basically how the length of day/night affect nature. just like leaves in the fall. it could be -30 or 110 here and the leaves change colors around the same time every year. the theory behind thisis that deer breed approximately the same time each year to give their offspring the best chance at survival. there is a website about this
http://www.trmichels.com/RutDates.htmand it sounds like he knows his stuff. either way im hunting by moon phase and by his theory, one of them should be right.
Yes, photoperidism is nature's timetable, but nature does not load bucks with their full arsenal before the precise time each weapon is needed.It's like photperidism is the opening of the valve of testosterone and estrogen. There are a lot of variables that canaffectthe correlation between the moon and deerbreedingand the study (website)didn't really address any of them (I dont think everyone should agree anyway). Thanks for the website and neat study.